Nashville Area Indian Health Service 2011 Annual Report

PRIORITY TWO: REFORM THE INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE.
Contract Health Service
The Nashville Area improved upon the annual gathering of unmet Contract
Health Service (CHS) needs by supplementing the annual Denial and Deferral
lists with an estimate of the amount of Tribal funds that supplemented CHS
funds. In order to improve and support current business practices, there has
been regular contact with IHS, Tribal and Urban CHS programs to update staff
on regulations, provide software updates, share best practices, communicate
Catastrophic Health Emergency Fund (CHEF) budget availability and status
reports, and promote Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).
The overall Area GPRA measure for CHS payments has improved from 69
days in GPRA year 2010 to 59 days in GPRA year 2011. In January, the
Nashville Area issued a letter to all federal CHS programs directing them to
uniformly implement several practices to improve tracking of fund balances,
improve the GPRA indicator, and pay close attention to the priority system.
The Area Director also issued a letter expanding the services covered by CHS
from only Level I to Levels I through III. The Nashville Area held a CHS
Consultation Listening and Best Practices Session via webinar in March.
A best practice of monthly reconciliations of the Contract Health Service
Management Information System (CHSMIS) and UFMS was by adding an
element to PMAPs for applicable staff.
Nashville Area Contract Health Service Cases
2520
1730
597
874
1185
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Fiscal Year
The chart above illustrates the growth in the number of CHS cases in the Nashville Area over the past five years.
20 www.ihs.gov/Nashville Nashville Area Indian Health Service